Chasing the Dawn
by CrossRow
Summary: Post The Dark Knight Rises in-depth character story involving Bruce Wayne and Selina trying to rebuild new lives in the shadows of Gotham while restoring young lives of Gotham's orphan and revengeful teenagers including Richard Grayson, Jason Todd and Barbara Gordon.
1. Chapter 1

**Chasing the Dawn**

**All characters rightfully belong to Christopher Nolan and DC Comics**

**I do not own any of these characters**

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**Bruce Wayne**

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As dusk neared, the sky became a canvas of tarnished amber and pale rose. Tiny flakes of snow descended on the frozen shore. On a rocky peak stood a solitary figure looking passively out at the icy waters. Cast in the shadows he was menacing dark figure, aside from his penetrating hazel eyes that clenched shut to the foggy shapes in the distance.

Batman turned his head, black, tattered cape billowed in the wind as he leaned his body on knee and listened to the silent knells of cathedral bells chiming in the frosty air. His hand lifted up, fingers grasped over the sharp ears of mask. He became still and allowed breath escape his chilled lips.

The sound of boots shuffling behind caught his attention. Batman looked over his plated shoulder and saw a small boy standing behind him. His eyes capturing the visage of the child became soulful, he turned and noticed the boy was a run a way, by the backpack slung over his shoulders. Red material stuck out from the jacket, and pale cheeks wet with fresh tears. He jumped down from his perched, walking over the child as his cape dragged on the sand, and the face under the cowl looked tender to the boy.

"It's you, isn't," the child began, weakly. "Everyone thinks you're dead."

Batman narrowed his eyes, "Let's keep it that way, kid." He growled, darkly.

"Why?" the boy creased his brow. Harden blue eyes stared up into hazel ones. "You survived. People will want to hear your story. Why make they believe in something that isn't real?"

"Because sometimes the real things that people believe in don't have to exist." Batman replied, placing his hand on the strap of the backpack. "Why are you out here?"

The boy shrugged, "I was hoping to catch a freighter. There's nothing in the city for me anymore."

Batman shifted his gaze to the docks, "You're running away?"

"Yeah. Just like you. I don't want to exist in Gotham." he replied with a bitter voice. A hand squeezed into a fist. "This city has taken everything from me. I have nothing left."

"Not everything." Batman whispered with a somber tone. He crouched down, and met the boy's teary blue eyes. "You're parents died during Bane's occupation. Their death wasn't your fault. Stop blaming yourself for something that was out of your hands." He rested his hand on the boy's tensed shoulders. "If you keeping on allowing the guilt to take over you, than you will fall in the darkness and never get back up."

The boy searched in the concealed hazel eyes, "Is that what happened to you, Batman?"

Batman nodded slowly, " I fell in the darkness because of my guilt but I always had a hand to help lift me back up." He breathed out a regretful breath. "Is there someone in Gotham to help you. A friend?"

"There is a good cop. He was there at the crime scene. Name was Blake."

Batman felt his lips curve into a small smirk. "He's a good friend. One the few." He turned his gaze to the freighters docking into the harbor, and then settle his eyes back to the boy. "There is something I want you do for me?"

"What?"

Batman quickly pulled off his cowl, revealing the handsome, chiseled of Bruce Wayne underneath. He placed the hard mask in the boy's hands. "Here kid, it's yours."

"Why give it to me?" the boy asked, indignant "What can I do with it?"

"You'll find out," Bruce gave him a smile, rising to his feet. He looked down at the mask. "Anyone can wear the mask." He locked his firm gaze to the boy. " It's up to you to embrace night."

The boy's blue eyes narrowed at the graphite cowl, his fingers clenched over the ears. "You think I can become him...Batman?"

"What's your name?" Bruce asked.

"Richard Grayson." the boy answered him with a clear voice.

Bruce smiled warmly, and removed a his utility belt from his battered waist, handing to the Grayson. "Gotham needs you, kid."

Grayson lowered his gaze at the belt, "How will I..." He lifted his head and saw that Bruce had vanished in the shadows.

He drove his steady blue eyes to the dark water of Gotham Bay and whispered, "Embrace the night to see the dawn."

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**Selina Kyle**

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When the midnight hour neared, darkness filled the grounds of the Wayne family estate. The empty mansion was a shadow in the moonlight. In front of three marble gravestones a slender figure stood quietly with a single rose in one gloved hand. Cast of moonlight reflected over her ghostly pale features, wind brushed over chilled red lips, dark coffee orbs narrowed at the name etched in the stone.

Selina was never one for saying goodbyes. It was a sign of sentimental attachment.

Heels sunk into the moist ground as she stepped closer to the grave. Her head lowered as the wind pulled her dark overcoat tighter against her body.

The funereal happened two days before, the lingering outlines of muddy footprints surrounded the grave. Her dark eyes narrowed at the bouquet of withering roses piled in the snow. Cursing out a frosty breath Selina bent her knees and looked at the name of Gotham favorite son that was only a memory in the hearts of the four people who mourned for his death. A throb of guilt made her heart clench inside her chest.

"Is this what you wanted, Wayne?" she growled to the stone."You gave them everything you had. Everything."

Selina placed the rose away from the other flowers and gloved finger curled around the black ribbon as she perfectly displayed it in the light beaming over her. The silent city made her cringe. She clenched her jaw tight and squeezed a fist. "I know wishes are for unrealistic suckers, but this is different, handsome. You made a change in me." she curved her red lips and smiled. "Almost."

She ran her gloved finger slowly over her stiff lips. "I just wished that you were still here, hell I want you here. But that's not how it's going to be not when you went and blew yourself up." Her voice crackled and she fought the urge to shed a tear. She glared at the grave for a long minute, still feeling the lingering warm of his kiss on her traitorous lips. "Rest and peace, Mr. Wayne. You deserve it."

She stood up, gritting her teeth against the cold air. Her long chocolate strands twirled across her face. She regained her tough composure, began to strode away, then paused in her strides. Selina turned and glared with remorse in her stony gaze at the mansion "It wasn't the damn pearls that I wanted to steal." she revealed, lifting her gaze to the misty moon and took out the UBS drive. "It was something else of yours."

For a moment she wanted to whip the drive across the grounds, instead she pressed it against her chest. It was the only thing she didn't steal. The only treasure that was freely given to her by his hand. The guilt swelled inside of her a at the thought of freedom.

_Freedom always has a price._

Selina tucked her key of a new door to open safely in the pocket of her coat, and then blew a kiss to the grave.

"See you around, handsome."

Within moments, her existence vanished in the shadows of the night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chasing the Dawn**

**-2-**

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**John Blake**

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"Do you think he's coming back?" Mark asked, sitting on a bench, looking down at the white chalk symbols of bats, he drew months before Bane's occupation over the streets of Gotham. He lifted his dark brown eyes and stared up at John Blake with a speck of hope in the depth of his gaze.

John shook his head, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his dark blue jacket. The twelve-year-old kept his eyes locked on the symbols, some of the drawings faded with the first December snowfall, but a few lingered on the scuffed up wood.

"I don't know." John told him with despondence in his low voice. "I want to believe that he will might return like all the other times, kid." He parted his lips and drew out a frosty breath as his eyes roved to the distant shape of the bridge in the haze of dusk. "Deep inside I know that he's not coming back."

Mark somberly nodded his head, and sniffled a little. "I never got to see him up close. All the other kids around here made up stories about him, but they weren't believable, Officer Blake." He clenched his dark eyes, and used a fist hand to wipe the tears off his frozen cheek. "He was my hero... Batman was everything I wanted to become when I grow up, but now that he's gone and never returning, I will nothing to believe in."

"There is always something to believe in," John echoed back, sitting down on the bench. He looked at the raven haired boy with a sincere gleam in his brown eyes and then turned his eyes to the snow piling on a rubber swing.

He curved the edges of his lips up into a smirk, "A boy always needs a hero to pin his fears and beliefs on, whether it's for a better understanding of the errors we make or using a friend as a shield to protect us from ourselves. I stop putting my faith in people when I was your age, Mark." He swallowed, narrowing his head down. "I lost someone close to you by an act of violence the way you did with your brother." He shifted his eyes at the boy, and spoke with clearance in his voice. "Sometimes you have to become the hero of your life and believe in yourself when there is no one left to play that role until..."

John narrowed his eyes.

"Did you have a hero?" Mark asked with a weak voice, looking at the tear drops splash on the wood.

"I had something better than a hero," John leaned his head in closer and whispered gently. "I had a friend."

Mark looked up into his dark eyes, and John wrapped his arm around the boy, embracing Mark's shivering body into a brotherly hug. "What was his name?"

"Bruce Wayne." John replied with a weak grin.


End file.
